Archive for July, 2012

On Sunday, Doug and I climbed The Bastille (5.7+). Doug led the odd pitches and I led the even ones. When we arrived, there was a party of multiple people who were on it and a couple parties of two in front of us. We were surprised because we got there very early in the morning. Apparently, not early enough!

Eventually the group with all the people cleared off the cliff. One of the groups of two bailed, in favor of doing something else. The duo in front of us were up the route rather quickly, so we decided to give it a go. We hoped to get to the summit before the summer rain came. (more…)

Trip Leader Clare on the summit of La Plata. You can see Ellingwood Ridge stretching out behind me!

For the Colorado Mountain Club’s Centennial Celebration, I led this mountaineering trip up the Ellingwood Ridge of La Plata. It’s a long and arduous 4th class ascent. After doing it, I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Ellingwood deserves respect and admiration. With a group of solid climbers, we negotiated the rubble and solved the puzzle. The summit was achieved, but it didn’t come easy! (more…)

On Monday morning, we struck camp at 6:50am. We hiked down to Camp Schurman, where we disposed of our waste and used the loo. We had snacks and got ready for the descent. Around 10am, we left Camp Schurman.

By noon we were back at tree-line after one of the longest glissades I’ve ever had. Sliding down the Inner Glacier was amazing. It took about 10 minutes to go down what took us 2+ hours to ascend! (more…)

On Sunday (Anne’s B-day!), we left camp just after 1am, for our summit bid of Rainier. There was one other team who left before us, so we were 2nd in line. Or at least we were momentarily…

We were traveling really slow as a group, so we were continually being passed by other parties. By the time we got to the crux section, there were 10 other parties waiting to go through that section.

It was a huge back-up. Sigh.

I got quite cold standing around, so I’d layer up. Then, we’d move a little bit and I’d get warm, so I’d shed the layers. It was a frustrating experience. It probably took us about 2 hours to get to the crux and get past it. If it’s this bad on Rainier, I couldn’t help but think how horrible it must be on Everest, where the stakes are so much higher! (more…)

On Saturday, we got up fairly early and broke camp. We left the relative comfort of our ~8,500 ft perch on Inner Glacier for spacious camp on the Emmons Flats, above Camp Schurman (9,800 ft). It was important to make this move in order to give us the best possible chance to summit on Sunday. (more…)